PM urges Liberals to oust Turnbull

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has advised Liberal Party elders to tap Malcolm Turnbull
on the shoulder after evidence central to his attack on the government turned out to
be a fake.
He says senior Liberals like Nick Minchin and Peter Costello should tell the
opposition leader to step aside.
Mr Turnbull's handling of the OzCar affair is under a cloud after an email allegedly
tying Mr Rudd's office to a request for taxpayer-funded finance for Queensland car
dealer John Grant turned out to be a forgery.
Mr Grant is Mr Rudd's neighbour and has lent him a ute for electorate use.
Mr Rudd told the Nine Network it was time for Mr Turnbull to step aside.
"This email is a fraud, it is a fake, it is a fabrication. Therefore, my own
judgment is that Mr Turnbull's got no option ... but to do the honourable thing,
apologise and resign," he said.
"I would call upon the ... experienced hands of the Liberal Party, Mr Costello,
Brendan Nelson, Senator Minchin, to tap Mr Turnbull on the shoulder and say it is
time to go.
"He does not have the character to occupy the highest office in the land."
Earlier in federal parliament Mr Turnbull was censured over the OzCar affair.
The long debate on Monday stole the focus from crucial issues - such as an emissions
trading scheme - the parliament was planning to deal with before breaking for six
weeks on Thursday.
The opposition is calling for a judicial inquiry into the OzCar affair.
Politicians voted along party lines to censure the opposition leader who the
government says is entangled with a false email at the centre of allegations
regarding the taxpayer-funded finance scheme for car dealers.
The opposition has claimed the email - purported to originate from prime ministerial
adviser Andrew Charlton - supported suggestions Mr Rudd's office was helping
Queensland car dealer John Grant, who'd donated a ute to the prime minister, to gain
OzCar finance.
The Australia Federal Police on Monday afternoon said the email was a forgery. They
have not indicated who is responsible for the document.
"What we have here is a leader of the opposition who is simply hanging in the
breeze," Mr Rudd told parliament.
While the government is targeting Mr Turnbull, the coalition has set its sights on
Treasurer Wayne Swan.
The opposition is demanding Mr Swan explain his involvement in what it is dubbing
the OzCar "deals-for-mates scandal".
The opposition wants Mr Swan to resign, saying he misled parliament over claims the
government gave special treatment to Mr Grant.
"Here we have a treasurer who has used his considerable influence to get a favour
for a mate," Mr Turnbull told parliament.
By rights, he said, Mr Swan should step down for "manifestly and comprehensively"
breaching ethical standards.
"It is abundantly plain that everything he has said in this house about John Grant
is false," he said.
The government, however, says it is Mr Turnbull who should go.
"Not only is the member for Wentworth not fit to be leader of the opposition by his
actions in this sordid Turnbull email forgery affair, he has also disqualified
himself from ever being fit to serve as leader of this country," Mr Rudd said.
"(He should) be man enough to apologise and resign."
Mr Swan told the opposition it should be ashamed of trying to exploit the action the
government was taking to save car dealerships from ruin.
"This lousy mob opposite are seeking to exploit that action and to somehow say it
was sleazy," he said.
"What (Mr Turnbull) demonstrated is how reckless he is, how irresponsible he is and
how he should resign."
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull later moved to censure Treasurer Wayne Swan over
his involvement in the OzCar affair.
Following question time, Mr Turnbull moved to censure the treasurer "for failing to
make a full and unreserved statement about his personal involvement and that of his
office in the OzCar deals-for-mates scandal".
The censure motion failed along party lines.
Treasury official Godwin Grech told a Senate inquiry on Friday he recalled Mr Rudd's
office making an initial representation on Mr Grant's behalf in an email.
Police interviewed Mr Grech on Monday as they investigated the origins of the email.
Meanwhile, Liberal backbencher Sharman Stone has questioned the consistency of the
federal government's response to struggling car dealers.
Dr Stone said she wrote to Treasurer Wayne Swan in March asking him to urgently help
a cash-strapped Victorian car dealer in her local electorate of Murray.
In parliament on Monday she asked Mr Swan why she never received a response.
"Why has the treasurer or his office or anyone else that I can find in this
government, why have they failed to make any contact?" she said.
"Not a fax, a phone call, an email or a letter to this business."
Liberal MP Bruce Billson also questioned Mr Swan's response to a query on behalf of
another Victorian car dealer, this time in his electorate of Dunkley.
Mr Swan has previously said Mr Billson was one of a number of MPs who approached him
about the scheme on behalf of constituents.
He said at the time that all dealers were treated the same, despite admitting he had
a brief phone conversation with Mr Grant.
"When I contacted the treasurer's department for assistance about a Dunkley car
dealer, Kambur Motors, did the treasurer have a phone conversation with the dealer
from my electorate?" Mr Billson asked Mr Swan.
"Was he kept personally informed in a detailed and ongoing way about the progress of
the case of my constituent?"
Mr Swan said he would look into both cases.